Hello!

I've been thinking about making a custom Masterboard consisting of an MDF base with a 1/2 inch "frame" border.  The inside would hold 4x4 of the masterboard tiles, each also mounted on an MDF base (or something thinner) and covered with a sealant.  The tiles would then be covered be a stiff plastic cover.

The idea is to have a set of interchangeable tiles that you just slot into the Masterboard base and cover with the plastic cover (that you can write on with erasable marker), then place the 3D models on top.

Thoughts on this?  If I carry out the project I'm sure I can put together a visual project diary with my digital camera if people are interested.

That is a WICKED idea! Hmm...Please do post any shots you take in the process.

Here's a question for Denny regarding this project:

The DungeonWorks tilesets are 8" x 9", while the newer VillageWorks tilesets are 7" x 7".  Are you going to be sticking with the 7" x 7" tiles for future releases?  This is fairly important if a person is planning on making a "slottable" tile board.  :-)

Thanks!

I am absolutely staying with the 7*7 tile size.

Last weekend I got the required MDF for the project.  I had the guy at the store cut the backboard and the 7"x7" squares, although he screwed up on the latter and was off by 1/4" on one side!  Using a jigsaw and sandpaper at home I managed to shave off the excess MDF.

One thing to note about MDF is that it will come apart and splinter fairly easily along the cut line if you're using a dull blade; make sure the cutting blade you're using is sharp and thin.

Although I was thinking about making the border edging MDF, there are a lot of nice corner trims that you can get from hardware stores.  Using that on the board edge to hold the tiles in place would look very nice - I plan on picking some up tonight.

As for the tiles I plan to print out a set of paper dungeon tiles to attach directly to the board, then attach village tiles to one side of the insert MDF tiles and cave tiles on the other side.  This way I can use the default dungeon board or insert village/cave tiles for custom interchangeable boards.

More info later as the project continues...

Cool! I think I'll do that with foamcore...

btw, what is MDF??!?!

I finally got the rest of the materials together for the MDF Masterboard project.  All I was lacking was small thin wood strips for the border to hold the tiles in.  Here's what I've ended up with:



- 1 29"x29" board
- 16 7"x7" MDF tiles
- 4 29"+ flat balsa wood strips

The layout of the board is as follows:



As you can see, the balsa strips will hold the tiles in place.  Just be sure that you don't snug the tiles in TOO tight; you want to be able to flip them over.  I will of, of course be trimming off the balsa wood strips to match the length of the board on the bottom.

More to come...

Cant wait! I love the direction you're taking with this thing. You are one inspired dude

Coolnes...

Humm.. I wonder if I could peel off the tiles from the illustration boards.

Next step: I laid out the dungeon tiles, cut to 7"x7" squares, on the board.  They fit nicely within the balsawood borders, so I pasted them in place.



With that done I had a basic DungeonWorks Masterboard.  However, I wanted a bit more flexibility than that, so I proceeded to paste 7"x7" VillageWorks paper terrain tiles to the loose MDF tiles.  I then was able to slot the VillageWorks terrain overtop of the DungeonWorks tiles in whatever formation I wanted.  The balsawood borders keep the tiles from becoming dislodged, and the MDF bases prevent the cardboard terrain from curling.



I plan to paste CaveWorks/InteriorWorks terrain on the reverse side of the tiles so that I can choose the DungeonWorks base tiles, VillageWorks morphable tiles or CaveWorks tiles.

Well, what do you think, sirs?  :-)

Looks pretty spiffy. Are you going to laminate the tiles (and the main board) or use a clear mac-tac or something? I'll probably copy your idea when I get a full-time (read: bigger) gaming space, so I'm wondering what kind of coating can be used with dry-erase markers.

... or would wet-erase (like for overhead projectors) work?

 D

Amazing  :o Youve inspired me to follow your lead here. When I get a spare day I'm going to try this out myself. Brilliant stuff Luthyr!

Here's an idea...

We use a slightly elevated play surface for our gaming, gets the maps and figs up off of the table and out of the miscellaneous 'stuff' that accumulates. I can't tell you how nice it is not to have to reach through/look over all the cups, books, etc. to relate with the action.

It's simply a bit of board with a sheet of plexiglass cut to fit on top. At the moment we simply slip graph paper (soon to be terrain tiles) under the glass and draw what details we need (soon to be paper models ). We can also slip the occasionally prepared/reused maps under. Nicely flexible.

It works great. Probably a bit more expensive than coating your tiles, but I'm sure it'd be much easier.

That was actually one of my other plans for the gameboard, a transparent 'lid' of some sort that can be slotted over top of the tiles.

One of the big reasons I'd still like to laminate the tiles is to protect against spillage (it always happens one time or another at the gaming table).  A plexiglass cover would definitely help in this respect too.

That is awesome Luthyr.

This gives me some ideas.....

I'm picking up as much WWorks stuff as I can get away with this birthday and Luthyr's MDF board is going to be one of my first projects.  ;D

I'm thinking of using the adhesive laminating sheet protectors you can buy at Office Depot for dry-erase capability. Also, I think I might try putting the board up on short (3" or so) legs to make room for things like character sheets on the table.

Luthyr, how did the balsa frame/border work out? Is it fixed to the board? Have you had any trouble with lifting tiles out of the middle?

Well, I got ALL the WorldWorks files this weekend as a birthday present. ;D So I went to work on my "Luthyr Board."

I picked up a piece of 1/8" fibreboard (basically pegboard without the holes) and had it cut into a 30" x 30" square & 16 7"x7" "tiles." I also got some "1/4 circle" moulding  and a 1" diameter dowel + some screws and some adhesive felt. Altogether, the materials cost me about $20 (US) at Home Depot.

I cut the moulding with 45 degree edges to join into corners and glued them with white glue to the edges of the smooth side of the 30" board (flat edge inside, rounded edge out). I was going to use brads, but I couldn't find anything short enough not to stick out and thin enough not to split the moulding. I let this dry overnight.

When the glue was dry, I painted the moulding with some interior latex I'd had mixed up to match Citadel's "Goblin green" (used for scenery painting). It only took about an hour to dry completely.

I also cut five 3" pieces from the dowel for legs and sanded the ends smooth. I painted these green as well. I drilled starter holes and screwed them onto the bottom of the board (approx 2" in from each corner + the center). Last, I stuck cut circles of adhesive felt on the bottoms of the legs to prevent it from scratching the table. The legs give just enough height for people to tuck their book(s) and character sheets, etc. underneath without being so high up as to make it hard to see the board while sitting down.

(NOTE: One thing I found was that -even though I had used flat head screws to attach the legs- I hadn't countersunk them, so they still stuck up a tiny bit. I didn't want the edge of the head to catch on anything, so I glued some squares (about 1" on a side) of cardstock over them. It made a slight bump (more of a ripple), but once I glued on the masterboard, etc. it was hardly noticeable.)

Now that the board was done, I went to work on the tiles. I used Luthyr's method & put the "Dungeon" grid on the board itself. I used the green "borders" (double width) to make the printout flush with the moulding and used the corner squares (in blocks of 4) too. I even put the "DungeonWorks" logo centered on one edge to give Denny credit  ;). This was all glued down with Elmer's and left to dry for an hour or so. I ended up with a 26 x 26 square grid with partial squares on the edges.

I then took some 3M adhesive laminate sheets (9" x 12") and covered the grid with the clear plastic. I got a few "air pockets" in the sheets when I rushed it, but I slit them with an X-acto knife and they smoothed out okay. Dry-Erase works fine on the plastic and wipes off with a damp paper towel.

The square tiles got an assorted printout from VillageWorks' (on one side) & Caveworks' (on the other) master boards. I glued them down with craft glue (Elmer's) and rolled them flat. When dry, these also got laminated on each side and I covered the edges of the boards with archival Scotch tape (a bit thicker than normal tape) to prevent accidentally catching on the edge and peeling/tearing the prints.

All in all it took me about two days to do. The longest part was the cutting and gluing of the master boards. I'm really pleased with it and can't wait to spring it on my group later this week  :D. The colors and details on the printouts are awesome and I'm going to spend the next couple nights building some of the actual scenery from the files so I have something to put ON the board.

Things left to do: My "45 degree" cuts on the moulding wasn't so perfect sans miter box, so I'm going to fill the gaps with plastic wood and sand smooth. Also, the tiles have about 1" of play inside the frame. If I center them and push them all flush with each other, it leaves just enough room on the edges (1/2") to get a finger under them to lift them out. I'm going to get some pushpins with clear plastic heads and space them around the inside edge of the moulding. That should hold the tiles to the center, but leave space to lift them out/flip them over, etc. (Mostly just cosmetic things, but I want to make it look as good as I can.)

EDIT: I tried the pushpins, but the tiles' edges would catch on the pin's "lip" (at the top of the pin). I'm leaving them off for now, but the wood filler worked great to smooth out the mouldings' corners.

Thanks to Luthyr for inspiring me and thanks to Denny for the great products that make the board look SOOO cool!  8)


PS- I took some digital pix of the finished product & will post them once I download them from the camera tonight.

That sounds excellent!  I'm looking forward to your photos tonight!

I'm probably going to be doing a few mods on my own board as well, and I'll likely post an update with the revisions as I do them.

Cheers!

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of my gameboard. The models are a couple huts & ruined tower from WotC's "Chainmail" models plus the free sample "Dungeon Entrance" from Denny. Over the next week or so I'll be assembling more of the WorldWorks scenery, but since I got the files Friday, most of my time was spent on making the board!

(3 images, approx 400kb total)

Here's a full shot of the board with the outdoor "Villageworks" tiles.


This one you can see the legs a bit more and the moulding.

(The "fifth" leg is just visible in the center.)

This last one shows the three different surfaces (Dungeon, Cave & Village masterboards). All are laminated for dry erase & spill protection.

(note the Dungeonworks border and Official Logo )

Very nice!  I wonder if there's a way to laminate/cover the tiles without making them as shiny... I'm going to try using Modge-Podge to see how that works.

I think I started a trend!  :-)

While the adhesive laminate is glossy, it isn't as shiny as it looks in the photos. The flash had a lot to do with that. Just looking at it in person, it's not nearly so reflective. (The third photo is a better example of how glossy it really looks.)

Part of the problem is that the smooth -and therefore shiny- surface is better for easy erasing of the markers. A rougher, matte surface tends to be more porous. I'm sure there are exceptions to that, but that's the general trend.

Hrm - I see your point!  I hadn't thought about the dry-erase use on the tiles, simply because I was thinking the tile cover as more of a sealant rather than providing a surface for using markers.

I'm still thinking about using some sort of plastic cover to fit over the tiles, like a big transparent square.  I'll have to see what I can find...

(Jaw drops to floor) You guys are incredible! Really amazing stuff. We should compile some kind of "how-to" guide and include it on the main site. Hmmm, let me think about this for awhile and maybe I could make it worth your while

D.